Sunday, 30 March 2008
Mayflower Sec received the Gold Award for Central Singapore O.N.E. Awards
Mrs. Selva, Mayflower Vice Principal received the O.N.E. Gold Award for the work that the YEG has done in 2007.
These awards are jointly presented by the Central Singapore Community Development Council and National Environment Agency, Central Regional Office.
The theme for 2007 was ‘Clean up, Bin it, Don’t Breed it’, with a focus on combating dengue, which has been recently on the rise.
This award aims to reach Out to the community, Nurture, educate and train them, and to Enable and empower them to put their heart into the earth.
The award was conceived to recognize, acknowledge and affirm the necessity to be pro-active in caring for the environment.
In total, 26 school in the Central Singapore District participated in this award and Mayflower Secondary School is the only school in Singapore that received this award for the work that they have done in 2007.
Mrs Selva,Vice Principal of Mayflower Secondary School receiving the award.
Central Singapore Environmental Regional Workshop 2008
Our YEGs were at the Central Singapore Environmental Regional Workshop held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Saturday 29th March 2008.
They facilitating the workshops for grassroot leaders.
Mayor of Central Singapore District, Mr Zainudin Nordin sharing with our YEGs the impact of climate change after watching their video. The YEGs conducted street interviews on climate change in Orchard Road on 23rd February 2008.
The YEGs taking a photo with Mrs Ess, Mrs Selva and Ms Sherri Ng,
I am particularly thankful to learn that Singapore had started to take a step to create awareness in the method of conservation of energy. People had always been told to save energy, but how? Is the usage of lesser electricity the only way? These are the hot question which remained unanswered for sometime.
The awareness created throughProject Switch give us many simple tips to remember and easy to follow steps to save energy. Some of them are like switch off the main switch instead of leaving the television on standby mode which also consumes energy. This campaign are driven by its motto of “Saving electricity also save your electricity bills” which unquestionably logical.
I was extremely please to acknowledge that our effort of producing the video on the awareness of people on the issue of climate change had been gladly welcome and became a hit! Many grassroots and important people even requested for it.
From this experience, I believed that it is certainly possible that we will be able to continue our senior’s legacy to reach out to the community. Though saving environment shouldn’t be a competition among ourselves but the limited time we had to make a different, I realize that it would be healthy for us to do ourselves (aiming for gold) as it would spur us and be the drive to push us, making us do our best. Though its still a long way to go to end the campaign on slowing the climate change, I am glad that I could play a part and make a different, improving myself and the people around me in the progress.
Today, we went to Grand Hyatt hotel for a regional workshop. It was both an interesting and fruitful workshop.
The speech by the VIP, Mayor of Central Singapore District, Mr Zainudin Nordin, inflicted upon me a great impact : we should wake up already. Not now, then when? He introduced the SWITCH project where it encourages everyone, including small enterprises, to help the environment by doing small little things.
Another point noted by Mayor Nordin was that in the conference room, the organisers had provided us with water kept inside small 500ml plastic bottles.
As the workshop proceeded towards the end, the organisers showed a video clip that my fellow YEGs and me had put in effort to do. This video clip, edited by professionals, shows two of our YEGs interviewing the public. This event occurred about a month ago, where we were given the task to gather some of the members of public and get them to share their views on a very serious issue ; climate change.
After the video clip was shown, we were complimented by the Mayor and he said that it was a great video he would never forget. I was honoured and happy as our hard work were recognised.
The workshop ended in the evening, and as always, I feel proud to be a YEG and also a Mayflowerian.
By Kelvin Lee
It was 10.30am when we reached there, the Grand Hyatt Hotel.It was my first time going there. We waited in the hotel lobby for our teacher, Mrs Frances Ess's arrival as the manager or some supervisor of the hotel told us to. Previously we were waiting outside the hotel and it was quite weird for people to stand outside their doors blocking their customer’s way. Finally she came and brought us up to the second floor to the Sir Stanford’s room for the workshop.
To our amazement, the workshop actually started at 2pm and we were 2hrs early as at one there would be a buffet lunch catered for us. Off we went to the buffet, it was very classy and scary because it would be embarrassment if we used the wrong eating utensil. On the table there are a total of 2 spoons, 1 knife and 2 forks. It went on well as whenever we made a mistake, Mrs Ess would correct us immediately.
Peh Rui Xiang
After attending the workshop at Great Hyatt Hotel, Singapore, it left me pondering about certain things.
Firstly, will everything that the students have done really help create awareness in the public's mind? Looking at the way Outram Park Secondary present their slides, I must conclude that it is very informative, but if they are going to present the slides to the public, it will never work.
Even if people understand their language, ensuring that they can picture the situation in their heads is another total different thing. They did a skid which I think they really put in a lot of effort in(although I was not able to understand it) on the local thoughts of Singaporeans.
Secondly, I’m sure everyone is familiar with the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ phrase. I feel that instead of reducing, why don’t we find substitutes that are able to last? Won’t that be more effective than using a plastic bag and keep using until it tears and you will still have to throw it away?
A good example is using metal containers to hold food when you take away. Of course considering the youths today, we know that it is almost impossible to tell them to carry one of those old-fashioned containers that we can reuse for unlimited number of times.
What the officials can do is create a trend for carrying those metal containers. During the YEG competition in January, we suggested having designs on it. Designs of art that will fascinate the youths.
Also in supermarkets, you can see people using reusable bags. But how many youths can you see actually using them? I personally feel that those bags could act as a handbag for women. Perhaps the government can try creating a reusable bag for the youths. Having different fashionable designs on those bags will let youths think that it is cool to have a reusable bag.
Thirdly, I must really comment on the effort of the government to slow the rate of global warming and creating awareness in the public. After seeing the ‘SWITCH’ programme proposed by government, I feel that the government is moving in the correct direction to create awareness in the public. By relating the utility bills and advising them on ways to reduce their bills, people will actually see the result(reduced electrical bills) and believe in the government.
I feel that by only writing in newspapers and holding talks, people will only know that climate change is an actual fact. But whether or not it will affect them, is another different thing.